As evening approached, Green Willow discovered that Tangyuan was no longer in the room, and Xuanyu was also missing. Panic gripped the entire Marquis's residence. Li Xingyun, returning from a busy day, learned of Tangyuan's predicament and immediately ordered the steward to lead a search party. He also sent Jifeng to notify Prince Wu. The entire Marquis's residence mobilized to search for the young master, but they couldn't find him. Finally, that evening, Jifeng returned and reported, "Don't worry, everyone. Tangyuan is fine. He's at the Hanlin Academy with Xuanyu; he'll be alright."
"How come he's at the Hanlin Academy?" Li Xingyun asked.
"Well, I heard from the prince that Tangyuan answered the imperial edict, so he was taken away by the soldiers."
"An imperial edict?! The imperial edict that's causing such a stir in the capital today?"
"Yes!"
"How can a child like him deal with a group of people, including the great writer Mr. Jiang from Cheguo?" Li Xingyun asked, puzzled.
"I don't know about that, but I heard that the people in the Hanlin Academy have already accepted Tangyuan."
"They can't find anyone else, so they're using a child as a shield!"
"Don't worry, Dr. Li. If things really get bad, Madam is here, so everything should be fine," Jifeng said. He didn't understand literature, but he knew that Tian Yu's two books had caused quite a stir in the literary world. Even the guys at the Hanlin Academy were eagerly waiting for updates every day.
"Tian Yu? She's still in jail. What a family, always so unreliable." Li Xingyun was speechless; not a single one of them was easy to deal with.
“Aren’t you family too, Uncle?” Green Willow said loudly.
"Forget it, since everything's alright! Everyone's tired, let's all go back and rest! We'll talk about it tomorrow!" Li Xingyun glared at Green Willow and said, while secretly considering whether he should make a trip to the Tang family.
Meanwhile, Tangyuan was taken to the Hanlin Academy, where several ministers surrounded him and stared at him for a long time. Tangyuan stood calmly and let them look at him to their heart's content.
"Why is it a child?!"
"Can this child even read? Or is he just playing around?"
"Nonsense! This is utter nonsense!"
"Is this soldier blind?"
"This imperial edict is no joke!"
But seeing Tangyuan's calm demeanor, and with everyone surrounding her asking her all sorts of questions, Tangyuan could only respond to the onslaught of these old guys with three words: "I don't know!"
When Academician Tang of the Hanlin Academy heard that a child had answered the call to action, he rushed over. Everyone else bowed and made way for him. Tang Wenli saw the glutinous rice balls in front of him and said with a smile, "Child, do you know what this is?"
"Of course I know, no need to ask anymore." Tang Yuan looked at the young man in front of her and felt that he was different from what she had imagined. The other academicians all looked quite old, but this academician was so young.
"Do you have any complaints about me?" Tang Wenli asked with a smile as he watched Tangyuan pout.
"No, it's just not what I thought. I thought the academician would be an old gentleman, a stubborn old man, just like them," Tangyuan said, expressing her thoughts.
"You stubborn old fool!" Several old men glared at Tangyuan, but they couldn't bring themselves to be angry at such an adorable child.
“Our Academician Tang is a child prodigy who passed the imperial examination at a young age. He is quite different from us.”
"Oh! Is that so? Then I'll take the imperial edict and give it to you! I need to go home now."
"Wait, even if you take down this imperial edict, it won't work."
"Why? I finally managed to snatch it back from someone else," Tangyuan asked anxiously.
"Robbery!?" Tang Wenli looked at Tang Yuan and Xuan Yu, then at the soldier who led them there, and asked, "What's going on?"
"We don't know either. The child recited a poem, and Mr. Fang gave him the imperial edict."
"Mr. Fang? Which Mr. Fang?" Everyone looked at the two soldiers in surprise.
"Yes, it's Mr. Fang, the Tang family retainer you were talking about," the soldier said, looking at Tang Wenli.
Tang Wenli was also shocked. He knew Fang Jue's academic abilities, so why would he easily give up the imperial edict for this competition?
Seeing their expressions, Tangyuan said smugly, "Can I leave now?"
"No! From today onwards, you must stay here until the competition is over before you can leave," Tang Wenli said, coming back to his senses.
"No! I want to go home. My uncle and aunt are waiting for me there."
"If you want to participate in tomorrow's competition, you must stay today. If you leave, I will consider it a forfeit."
"Okay! Then let my brother go back and inform my family first."
"good!"
"Tangyuan, I can't leave your side," Xuanyu said.
"It's alright, brother will go back and inform them first, then come back."
"If you'd like, you can tell me where you live, and I'll have the soldiers inform you," Tang Wenli said.
"No need, I'll go." Xuan Yu said and left.
Tang Yuan was assigned to the Hanlin Academy. Tang Wenli asked, "Where do you live? Who are your parents? Could you please tell me?"
"You don't know us; we've just arrived in the capital."
"Really? I've never seen a scholar in the capital who could make Mr. Fang bow his head."
"The world is full of wonders, and there are many things you haven't seen."
Tang Wenli's eyebrows twitched from the bump, but he still politely said, "In that case, you can rest here tonight! Someone will come to take you tomorrow."
"What about my brother?"
"Don't worry, someone will bring him here in a little while."
On the other side, Xuan Yu hurriedly returned to the Marquis's residence. On the way, he met the Prince and Ji Feng. After explaining the situation, the Prince and Ji Feng remained calm. The Prince even said with a wicked smile, "How could I forget her? This time, the delegation from Che Kingdom is going to be in trouble. It seems that things have taken a turn for the better."
"Alright, Jifeng, go and inform the people at the Marquis's residence. Xuanyu, go back and protect Tangyuan."
Xuan Yu quickly returned to Tang Yuan's place. Prince Wu, sitting in his carriage, was all smiles, saying, "Interesting! Interesting! This is going to be lively!"
He instructed his men to keep Tang Yuan a secret and not let the government find out his identity. As a result, because of Prince Wu, the people of the Hanlin Academy did not find out any news about Tang Yuan all night. They did not know his name or where he lived. They only knew that he was nicknamed Tang Yuan and that he had an older brother with a sword by his side.
After settling Tangyuan in, Tang Wenli was stopped by a carriage on his way home. Tang Wenli was quite surprised to see the people inside. Li Xingyun didn't waste any words and said directly, "Please trouble Lord Tang to take good care of Tangyuan."
"Nebula! Is that child yours?"
"No! He's my nephew. Brother Tang, please take good care of him!"
"good!"
Tang Wenli wanted to ask the reason, but Li Xingyun had already left. Tang Wenli was full of questions. He remembered that Li Xingyun did not have any sisters, but the child's tone of voice was indeed very similar to his. Since that was the case, he could not let the child take risks. The Tang family already owed him, so how could he refuse since he had asked?
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